By: debbie lynn elias
There’s a new director on my radar named Anne Renton. Making her feature film directorial debut with THE PERFECT FAMILY, Renton is a director with a clear vision and approach to storytelling that allows performances to flow and a story to unfold and fuel itself on the everyday elements of life. And she does just that here with the Cleary family. A seemingly typical Irish Catholic family, mom Eileen is still caught up in the 70’s mindset of devotion, religious tropes and trappings and the need to be “perfect” to the eyes of the world, and God. Nominated for Catholic Woman of the Year, she needs the family to be on their best behavior and mind their P’s and Q’s if she has any hope of defeating her nemesis Agnes Dunn for the award (which comes with absolution for all of her sins). But what happens when her family isn’t as perfect as she likes everyone to think?
Eileen’s husband Frank is already a recovering alcoholic, but imagine what people will say when they learn that son Frank Jr. year is leaving his wife and is having an affair with the local manicurist. And then there’s daughter Eileen. She’s a lawyer, a lesbian, 5 months pregnant and marrying her Hispanic girlfriend. The entire family is a contradiction to the teachings of the Catholic church and Eileen’s core values.
As her family fractures and Eileen’s plotting and cover-up of the truth takes hold of her, can she come to terms with life and her family, and put her shame aside to be the matriarch she needs to be? Can she put her family ahead of the church and her personal gain? Can her family put her ahead of her stubbornness?
Characters are pitch perfect as is the casting. This is Kathleen Turner’s film and one of the best and strongest performances I have seen from her on film in many a day. Funny, heartwarming, poignant, frustrating, exasperating, frenetic, as Eileen she doesn’t want to see the forest for the trees. While she wants to support her kids, she doesn’t know how. She never learned how because she was so caught up in the mechanics and societal aspect of the church, she forgot what the Bible really was all about. And as the story unfolds, you understand methods and manners as a means to make penance for her a past of which she is ashamed and wants to block from her mind, thus the need to be named Catholic Woman of the Year and gain absolution from the archbishop. Turner runs with the character and gets you interested and invested in her. You care about Eileen. Strongly rooted in reality, Turner is so solid and believable that there are even times you want to run the other way and hide from Eileen, much as if your own mother. You want to see Eileen come to terms with life and watching Turner in this emotional quandary is joyous as she calls upon every emotion and nuance to perfectly capture every note of the character. You want to see Eileen happy but with acceptance of others. And Turner has you laughing and tacitly nodding in knowing agreement through it all.
I had a chance to ask Turner about how much “Kathleen” is in Eileen and vice versa, “I suppose she’s sort of like the Kathleen I might have been in a different world. [laughing] My mother, who is an extraordinary woman and who’s now 88, until my father died, she didn’t think of having career or of doing anything other than raising 4 children. But at the same time, she was so extremely active in volunteer work. Now that I really identify with, with Eileen, because it’s a big part of my life.” Capturing Turner’s attention with THE PERFECT FAMILY is that “One of the really interesting ideas that caught my imagination about doing this film was how – how does any person, not just a woman, who accepts so totally these confining rules that she’s supposed to follow in order to live life right, correctly, how does that exist in the real world day-to-day living? It doesn’t. We have to find that out.”
Essential to playing Eileen was finding a balance with Eileen’s deep devotion to the church. For Turner, “organized religion is man putting words in God’s mouth. . .but belief in believing, I do believe in believing and I admire it. I just don’t think it should be exclusive or judgmental.” With that said, “not mocking” was paramount to Turner in both her performance and the film as a whole. “It’s a question of [Eileen’s] self worth. If the closer she can follow the rules that she’s been brought up to accept, to act upon, the closer she feels she can stay to that model, the better person she must be.”
The familial elements that Jason Ritter, Emily Deschanel and Michael McGrady bring to the table as Frank Jr., Shannon and Frank Sr., are not only catalysts for Eileen’s angst, worry and exasperation, but also celebratory of the love within the family. You have to adore McGrady’s performance. He is the calm in the eye of a storm (the storm being Eileen) and such “a dad”. But just wait until you see Ritter and Deschanel. Lifetime friends in real life, the two are beyond perfect as brother and sister, establishing the dynamic with only two camera shots at the dinner table – she kicks him under the table and he makes an ugly face at her. PRICELESS! But beside the sibling angst and shenanigans, there is a great dramatic bond the two have that will bring tears to your eyes. Watching these two I could only think of myself and my brother Ed. Their collective performance could have been lifted from the pages of my own life.
But beyond the sibling hijinks, Frank Jr. and Shannon are each at a crossroads in their lives and as opined by Ritter, “[Frank’s] [adult] intuition is a newer aspect of who he is”; does Frank continue to do what he has been taught is the right thing and be miserable the rest of his life, or get a divorce and be with the woman he loves? Anne Renton describes Frank Jr. “as really following his heart [and] individuating from what his parents wanted him to do in life.” Ritter captures this newfound maturity beautifully and allows us to see Frank’s emotional growth naturally progress, albeit with only a few scenes in which to convey this growth. Ritter perfectly blends and utilizes his comedic and dramatic skills in making Frank Jr. someone that resonates with each of us.
A nice little touch for Bones fans is the Shannon-Angela dynamic. We are all so used to seeing Deschanel with a best friend named Angela whom she dearly loves, that there is that built in subconscious acceptance when you see Deschanel not only with Angelique Cabral who bears resemblance to Michaela Conlin in Bones, but who is named Angela. Smooth as silk with no questioning of believability whatsoever.
And talk about perfect casting! Richard Chamberlain is Eileen’s priest, Monsignor Murphy. You see him in vestments and thanks to The Thornbirds, one is immediately transported through time and Chamberlain is accepted as a priest, no questions asked. I did a double take with Sharon Lawrence’s Agnes. She just oozes sneaky. A downside to the film – could have used more time between Turner and Lawrence as they are delicious together! And as always, Elizabeth Pena is a delight, here as Shannon’s mother-in-law.
Written by Paula Goldberg and Claire Riley, THE PERFECT FAMILY excels with its character construction. We have father and son working together as firefighters. Very blue collar Irish Catholic. A daughter who loves her parents and still honors them with the Thursday family dinners, but who has made her own way on her own terms with Dad being her closest ally set against the always feuding mother-daughter dynamic that has gone on for centuries. The staunchly devoted Irish Catholic mother rooted in the canons and practices of the 70’s with her head in the sand and so wrapped up in proving she’s a good Catholic by her deeds that she forgets how to be a good Catholic with her heart. These are people we know. They resonate. They touch us. Interesting is how the script morphed over the years from the time it was first written to its present form. According to director Renton, “In the original script, the characters were there and the essence of the story was there but the script was quite dated.” Rewriting to remove that dated tone, Kathleen Turner also provided extensive script notes which were incorporated not only into her character but the overall storyline. Important to director Renton was that the film ended on “a note of hope.”
The story has an easy flow with comedy organically arising, albeit fueled by Eileen. Key is that while front and center issues of drinking, divorce, same sex marriage, homosexuality are the basis for the story, at no time does the film get preachy nor malign the church or politics. Issues and viewpoints are raised just through the events of day-to-day life. Permeating the story is the thematic element of love and acceptance. Nicely crafted.
Comedy flows from the individual character traits blended with the foibles of everyday life. Much of the humor doesn’t even require dialogue. The visuals are more than enough. Two prime examples involve Ritter and Turner. In one scene, Ritter’s Frank Jr. arrives at his parents’ home for a meeting with the clergy. Only problem is that he’s drunk as a skunk. With no words, only horrified parental looks, Ritter free falls forward landing flat on his face on a hardwood floor; a pratfall more than worthy of his father’s own patented physical comedy, and a stunt of which Ritter is quite proud. Another visual gem involves Turner’s Eileen and Frank Jr.’s hussy of a girlfriend, as in a show of maternal domination, Eileen shows up for a manicure, sits down, thrusts out her hands and the bottle of nail polish she wants used – Harlot Rose. Definitely worth more than a smile and a chuckle thanks to Turner.
Megan Hutchinson’s production design is perfect. The Cleary house is so East Coast suburban. Dark woods, the bricked fireplace, gold velvet chairs, lacy tablecloths and doilies. Wonderful contrast is the more hi-tech streamlined, light brightness of Shannon’s apartment. Great metaphoric aid for the generational differences and beliefs. The production design bodes well for simplifying story and dialogue as they are so strong and exacting, scenes need no dialogue set up or explanation. Just one look says it all and sets the stage perfectly.
And a nod to Andrew Kaiser’s score and music selections which often feel like vintage Simon & Garfunkel. Lilting, folksy and from the heart.
THE PERFECT FAMILY – a perfect little gem of heart and humor.
Kathleen Turner – Eileen Cleary
Jason Ritter – Frank Cleary, Jr.
Emily Deschanel – Shannon Cleary
Michael McGrady – Frank Cleary
Richard Chamberlain – Monsignor Murphy
Sharon Lawrence – Agnes Dunn
Elizabeth Pena – Christina Rayes
Directed by Anne Renton. Written by Paula Goldberg and Claire Riley.
